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Wednesday, 10 February 2010

Tombits

Nussbaum ready to roll: Although Lukie hurt her knee during the her last game before leaving for Vancouver, she will be playing for the Swiss at the Olympics. Here is a LINK to the Swiss roster. Here is a LINK to leave a message and wish Lucrece GOOD LUCK. The site is in German but is easy enough to understand.

Final weekend of regular season for men: Pending a miracle, we are looking at our last weekend of men's hockey until next fall. There certainly are some passionate STU fans out there and Dave Ritchie talks about the "vitriolic commentary" on this website concerning Coach Mike Eagles in his column today.

Women's weekend update: The Lady Tommies should be able to ice three complete forward lines on Sunday for the first time in several weeks. It was something else to see only five bodies on the bench during play against PEI a few weeks ago. The back end will still be light as Coach Murphy expects only four D will start. Jessica Holt could see spotty action, as she returns from her leg injury, but no one is rushing it. Kristin Wolfe will dress against SMU on Sunday but will back up all-star Julia Sharun.

Big game for the Ladies versus Saint Mary's as they sit two points back of the Tommies with one game in hand. Provided the game is won in regulation, we will be tied or sit four points up on the Huskies.

20 comments:

After reading these posts i thought I would share a review of a past player . I think Mike Eagles is the hardest working coach out there . I beleive that he is a great coach and also doing a great job as AD . Team is improving and they have some great young guys in there this year and lets be serious you can not judge the tommies the same way as UNB. When a team hosts nationals ever couple year they are going to get top notch players. Mike was my coach for 4 years and i have never seen a guy more prepared for games and practices. I hope to see Mike behind the bench at STU for a long time as he is going to be hard to replace with his nhl experience and his work ethic and his drive to make guys better and WIN. Yes I said win , Mike wants to win more then anyone else. STU is lucky to have a coach and AD with Mike Eagles .Ask 99 % of the guys who played for Mike and all will say the same thing about Mike's work ethic , preperaion , and the respect the guys have for him . STU has always been a hard working blue collar team , so I thinkit is crazy not to have a guy who worked so hard for everything he got in hockey . ( 853 career NHL Games ). Simmer

No offense, but your argument doesn't hold water. Of course, Mike WANTS to win. But after 8 years and a decidedly losing record, it's evident he can't make it happen.Not fair to compare to UNB? Then why play the games? By the results, it's also not fair to compare to Acadia, Saint Mary's, St. F-X, UPEI, Moncton or Dalhousie either.As much as you respect Mike, and we fans appreciated you as a Tommie, how much did you WIN with Mike?Mike has had his chance and failed to build a winner or instill any hope of having a winner. It's time to pass the puck to someone who can get the job done.With 2 games left this season, over 8 years the W-L-T-OTL record is 90-104-11-17. That's a .405 winning percentage, and includes his first year where he went 16-7-5, with only one other winning season (2005-06) since. Name another coach who would keep his job with that kind of record.Hard work is a wonderful virtue, but results are far more important.

Last night The Gleaner broke the unreast voiced on this site. It is now out there. I know of at least one incident as AD where he failed to act. I see the good old boys club in hockey that turns people away. Both in male and female coaches. A good AD would have been on top of these issues. STU is a small University that promotes staff knowing their students. Hockey coaches run their shows like they are above the students and staff. This site over the past year has challenged both coaches and nothing has changed.

I think the scarier thing is the drop in attendenca at the LBR. in 04-05 STU averaged 802 people 05-06 852, 06-07 557, 07-08 445, 08-09 356 and this year there was only 415 at the games. Take out the games against UNB and you're probably looking at about 300. How are we going to keep a team if we don't get more people in the stands. I bet you LHHS averages more fans then this.

You would win that bet. Leo Hayes normally draws between 800 and 1000 although most of them are kids. How many students do you see at the Tommie games? ZERO!!!! The guys sitting in the stands are the same guys who were sitting in the stands when Al MacAdam was the head coach. Loyalty but not enough for others who are sick and tired of losing games night after night. The culture needs to be changed, people!!!!Eagles can be that guy, but he needs to accept some help. Get a recruiter in there who isn't afraid to burn the midnight oil.

Whick gets back to the earlier point of low gate money!! How much money must STU be putting into these two programs? Why is it so important to float two teams at such a cost. I agree the fans are the same. I do think the women are climbing to the top by out spending every other team in the league, but that has taken 6 0r 7 years and many of those players come from other Universities or Europe because the money is at STU. What if the thousands and thousands we spend at STU went to lower student fees or offer more courses? Normally this would not be such an issue, but if the hockey is dying then put efforts somewhere else or take a look at the damn programs to make changes.

be interesting to see what Bill hunt writes or the Blog site manager? Any guesses. probably an article on how the coaches are planting trees in the rain forests or an article on my favorite room, at the coaches lounge in the new Arena?

Well what is relevant with STU Hockey?? can someone let me know, because in my mind after we lose one or both games this weekend what else do we have to say about this team??? like are we going to settle for last. ummm not sure, but that seems to be what your getting at. I know people including myself seem to be beating a dead horse here but, tell me what else is there to talk about, or relevant?

Maybe we can talk about the positives of the team, like how good Banfield has been since his injury. Talk about how many big saves Charlie has made that not many goalies COULD make. Talk about (minus the stupid penalties) how good the Wild West Line has been STU's best line all season and right up there with the Killer B line (Bateman, Bowers and Bourbeau) and the Delilse, McAllister, Bell line in 2005-2006. No one talks about the positives, so I will attempt to try it.

Wild West Line has been great. Particularly how Reich has come into his own as a relied upon skater.

Lavigne is terrific. More support and he'd be the best goalie in the league (oops, there I go with a negative).

We have great depth players. We can compete with anybody's bottom 6 forwards. And yes, that can be a positive.

If players are reading this, you are not the root cause of the problems. For the most part, I think we believe you are all playing to the best of your abilities. Sure, there appear to be some motivational and discipline issues. It's up to you guys to get past that stuff and play. The problem is that the overall talent level does not suffice. We need MORE talent. We need TOP LINE talent. We need someone with the ability to recruit said talent.

If you want to "celebrate the positives" of a last place season, more power to you. Let's rename the team the STU Leafs, then.

lol at the leafs comment. And there are a lot more positives. Funny how a discussion about the positives turned into a recruiting comment. Instead of talking about the recruting, lets talk this year team. Just tired about rolling though the negative valley.

STU Leafs haha. Our fans arent as delusional as some that make youtube videos about their playoff march.

once again, an anonymous poster trying to make fun of me. Too bad your hiding behind a comp and wont put your own name in, nor came over to the video booth to say this to my face. Real tough. I was just talking about the positives this season because everyone looks at the negative. A change of pace. Maybe grow a sack.

Mike Eagles "trying to 'find pillars to build our program around... work ethic, character, discipline." Fine attributes all, but more of the Eagles "work harder, not smarter" mantra. Where's the "talent" pillar"? And why has it taken 8 years to figure out you need a foundation to build the program?

Will Mike Eagles bench himself for chirping at the ref and costing the team versus Saint Mary's?

I'm not aware of the workings of the Derryl Smith situation, so I am not about to compare. That said, I don't consider the chatter on this site to be "external politicking". To me, this is a group of fans - ticket buyers, alumni, stakeholders - expressing their opinion on the program. Very few here are attacking Mike Eagles the man. To those who are, shame on you. Most are expressing our opinion on Mike Eagles, coach of our hockey team. Agree or disagree, it's fair comment. Unhappy players / internal dissension is no reason to fire the coach outright. But it is reason for investigation. And it is about the win-loss record. Oh, university athletics isn't all about wins and losses, it's about education. Well, Eagles is failing on both counts. How many players have left the program early having failed to earn their degree?Call us a "lynch mob" if you will. What else can we do? Call the AD? Stop buying tickets? (many have).Who has the answers? Anyone? Anyone?

Don't really know how Mike Eagles compares with Derryl Smith's situations. I remember Derryl got in a snit with the president of the university and as an alumnus, I know he ticked off some of the support group. I don't think it was as much about the hockey team because didn't the team win under his coaching? In today's Gleaner, there was a reference to Smith's benching guys because of an incident. I don't think that got him turfed. If anything, probably most people agree with that decision. It seems to me that Eagles situation is more related to the losing ways of the hockey team and his inability to recruit players. I don't think it's got anything to do with inside politicing as it might have with Smith. If eagles has the same record as Smith, nobody's saying a word. But his teams haven't been as good, and he can't seem to recruit either. That's what is being suggested on this site and that's why people are chiming in. They have that right for sure. As one of the Gleaner columnists said the other day, it's alarming when they stop caring. Hopefully, there are enough of us still around to keep this program afloat.

I would hate to see the banter on this site resulting in a man getting fired (Eagles), even though that is the hockey coaching world. i think that is probably why Gardiner has signed on for life at UNB. He might or might not make it in the world of pro hockey. Big fish in a little pond syndrome. I have no love for UNB and I need to say that up front. Having said that I think the sitaution at STU is dire. This weekend may keep them in the game for a few extra days, who knows maybe the Tommies will win the AUS?? Whatever. The situation at STU is fundamentally a poor structure. The hockey Coach is in charge of the hockey coaches? AD/coach is a flawed model. I think it is leading to nothing good. Whoever is above Mike needs to have a chat.

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